Combat vehicles often house high explosive munitions. The safe housing of said munitions is critical to the well being of the transport personnel and their vehicles. Hence, the housing of the high explosives in transport vehicles and the protection of the vehicles carrying them in the event of the explosive's detonation while within the vehicle is of great concern. The problem of housing and transporting explosives is not a novel one, however, it does remain a difficult one to solve.
Housing and transporting these munitions is a dangerous task; and is dangerous even when the transport vehicle used is a battle tank. The problem, however, is magnified when the transport vehicle structure is composed primarily of aluminum.
External or compartmentalized storage of the explosive munitions is a viable solution to the problem. However, such storage would only be successful in overcoming the difficulties mentioned above only if the vehicle is able to withstand the blast from the detonation of the stowed munition.
Layered, composite armor plates have been used to protect military vehicles from explosive blasts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,889, issued to Miguel, teaches a hybrid, layered, composite floor armor for use in military tanks. The armor of Miguel exists in a sandwiched configuration and may contain steel honeycomb, Kevlar.RTM. and balsa wood. The claims in Miguel require the presence of balsa wood. Although the present invention does make use of Kevlar.RTM., the use of balsa wood is nowhere mentioned.
Miguel further teaches an armor that has an areal density of 63 lbs./sq.ft. The armor of the present invention is focused on weight efficiency. Our invention has an areal density substantially lower than that claimed in Miguel. For example, the areal density of the present invention is more in the range of 17.6 lbs./sq.ft. Our armor is light weight and is used for protection of light weight structures, not tanks. The honeycomb high strength/high density steel material used by Miguel has a density of 0.70 grams/cubic centimeter; whereas, the honeycomb crush element used herein has a density of approximately 0.13 grams/cubic centimeter. The comparative material used in Miguel is almost six-fold more dense than the material used herein. Moreover, the present invention uses a pusher plate which acts in a piston-like fashion against the honeycomb crush element. This combination is neither taught nor suggested by Miguel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,454, issued to Norton, teaches a lightweight composite, layered panel for resisting penetration of explosives. Said panel requires the presence of thermal insulation and a honeycomb panel which contains a subliming material. The present invention does not require the presence of said components.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,105, issued to Donovan, teaches penetration resistant panels which comprise textile yarns and Kevlar.RTM.. The ballistic protective device of Donovan does not use Nomex.RTM. honeycomb, aluminum honeycomb, homogeneous armor, glass-filled resinous sheet materials, etc. These materials are all within the scope of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,804,034 and 3,633,520 teach the general concept of layered armor. These references do not teach or suggest the parameters of the present invention. They further do not teach the utility claimed herein.
To date, a light weight attenuator of blast and shock from detonating munitions comprising the composite, layered shield of the present invention has not been proposed. Moreover, the use of said light weight shield for the purposes set forth herein is novel.